By Carlos D. Marquez, Jr. (Correspondent), Business Mirror via SEAMEO SEARCA

Selected scientists from Germany, US, China, Vietnam and the Philippines are making rice nutrient -dense grain-food to save about 10 million children in poor countries from dying everyday due to malnutrition.

By 2015, as envisioned, a cup or 160 gram of what would be genetically engineered cooked rice can give the poor - who would often content themselves with rice alone for their diet - the combined nutrients from a slice of steak, a piece of prawn, a fried egg, some vegetables and fruits.

"The overall goal is to engineer rice with increased levels of provitamin E high quality protein, zinc and iron," explains the Golden Rice Project web site. The Golden Rice, notable for its yellowish color resulting from the high concentration of betacarotene in it, was first developed in 1999 by German scientist Peter Beyer of the University of Freiburg.

Now, the project ProVitamin A Rice Consortium, has been formed to fortify it further with protein, vitamin E, zinc and iron.

To achieve the goal, the consortium, funded by the Melinda and Bill Gates Foundation, gathered molecular biologists, biochemists and plant breeders from Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany, Michigan State University and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, USA, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Cuu Long Delta Rice Research Institute and the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) in Muñoz Science City, Philippines.

This current research, which aims to fuse vital nutrients and achieve a balanced composition of the needed amino acids, is part of the Grand Challenges in Global Health Program of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in collaboration with plant breeding and crop protection multinational Syngenta.

The consortium is led by German scientist Peter Beyer, the acknowledged "principal investigator" of the Golden Rice project. Each of the consortium members has an assigned task in completing the rice project. 

The University of Freiburg and Michigan State University are in charge of the multigene stacking and for transformations; Baylor College of Medicine with Michigan State University identifies quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for iron bioavailability and assess bioavailability in model systems as well as the human iron acceptability studies; Chinese University of Hong Kong enhances the protein quality and lysine content of rice; CLRRI and PhilRice do the introgression of the needed nutrient into their respective local varieties; while IRRI takes charge of the latter task in the rice varieties in other Southeast Asian countries.

"Hopefully, we can develop one single line per country containing all the essential micronutrients," said Dr. Rhodora R. Aldemita, chief science research specialist of PhilRice and a genetic engineering expert. She is the PhilRice principal scientist for the Golden Rice project.

Aldemita had her postdoctoral fellowship at the Albert-Ludwigs University Freiburg, Germany, from June 2003 to December 2005 and PhD in Botany from Purdue University, in Indiana, USA, in 1996. She obtained her Ms in Agronomy from the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, Laguna.

Aldemita conducts breeding studies to incorporate the provitamin A genes into PSBRc 82 and Mabango 1together with Dr. Antonio A. Alfonso, a molecular plant breeder and geneticist who heads PhilRice's Plant Breeding and Biotechnology Division.

Antonio is crossing the female parent of the two Philippine rice varieties, selected for their popularity, taste and other attributes with the male parent donor SGR1, or the Syngenta Golden Rice 1, which contains around 8 mg per gram of beta-carotene.

After producing an F1, or the resulting progeny, it will then be crossed again with the two recurrent parents PSBRc82 and Mabango 1. The process, Antonio adds, will be done repeatedly until a uniform line, with the same agronomic characteristics of the parent is obtained.

Another study deals with the incorporation of the Golden Rice characteristics into the locally adapted tungro-and bacterial blight-resistant varieties.

"PhilRice already has conventionally bred varieties which contain these disease-resistant traits and adding vitamin A through conventional breeding and backcrossing is a very important endeavor. The product will become a new variety with all the desired genes in it," Aldemita said.

SGR1 contains the important genes to convert the precursor geranyl-geranyl pyrophosphate present in the rice endosperm into beta-carotene. The daffodil gene phytoene synthase, and the phytoene desaturase from a common soil bacterium Erwinia uredovora were introduced into the variety Cocodrie through Agrobacterium tumefaciens - mediated transformation. This led to the production of high amounts of beta-carotene in the endosperm which is available for food.

In the latter course of the five-year project, Aldemita will introduce multinutrient constructs to include genes for vitamin A, E, high lysine, and possibly iron zinc into rice through genetic engineering. "Achieving this will be the realization of an ultimate goal, that of improving the nutrient and protein quality of the staple rice," she confided.

"Golden Rice and other engineered rice lines with stacked traits will be incorporated into ongoing breeding and seed delivery programs for developing countries," said the Golden rice web site. When fully developed, the engineered variety will be made available to farmers.